Why does LightDM only show a custom wallpaper on the login screen if I have selected one of the default wallpapers? [duplicate]

Solution 1:

I bet you use an encrypted home folder - which is readable not before you log in. What you can do is to copy your background image for instance to /usr/share/backgrounds (as root, i.e.: sudo cp ~/Pictures/backgroundimage.png /usr/share/backgrounds/) and set it as background image out of this un-encrypted folder.

Solution 2:

Not sure what the problem in LightDM really is but i solved this by scaling my wallpaper to my screens resolution. I moved them to /usr/share/backgrounds (location of the default wallpapers) as well. Not sure what did the trick but it works for me.

Solution 3:

Still works fine here, either from ~/Pictures, added from the dropdown or any other location, added from the little + under the wallpapers in Appearance window

The directory holding your chosen Background image must allow Others execute permission so maybe check the permissions of the folder holding your image

Ex. of the min necessary permissions

$ ls -ld Pictures
drwxr-xr-x 2 doug doug 4096 Apr 30 00:02 Pictures

Solution 4:

I can confirm that it's not a matter of "+" button. You can either use a cp command, a "+" or Nautilus. It will not work UNTIL you resize the image to your screen resolution.

Now it works!

Thank to all.

^Pepe^

Solution 5:

You don't even need to copy the picture in /usr/share/backgrounds folder. You just need to use full path to the image. I've tested that and working.

Go to This answer to get help on changing lightdm wallpaper.
Follow all the commands begining from sudo -i to disable user background
Before the last command which sets the background image, Do this command
```
export $(dbus-launch)
```
It will say, no protocol specified but ignore those warning.
In the last command where you are going to change the wallpaper, use full path. For example, I used this command to set a picture in my home directory
```
gsettings set com.canonical.unity-greeter background '/home/anwar/Below_Clouds_by_kobinho.jpg' 
```

Please note: Make sure to use ' mark in the start and end of location.

That's it. Logout to see your image.